Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal

A worker walks among Audi A1 cars in the parking of the Audi powerplant in Brussels, Belgium September 28, 2015. Volkswagen, facing a scandal for the falsification of U.S. emissions tests has said 11 million cars worldwide had defeat devices installed, including 2.1 million of Audi of models A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
Volkswagen announced plans on Tuesday to refit up to 11 million vehiclesand overhaul its namesake brand following the scandal over its rigging of emissions tests.
New Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said the German carmaker would ask customers "in the next few days" to have diesel vehicles that contained illegal software refitted, a move which some analysts have said could cost more than $6.5 billion.
Europe's biggest carmaker has admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States and Germany's transport minister says it also manipulated them in Europe, where Volkswagen sells about 40 percent of its vehicles.
The … [Read more...] about Volkswagen to refit cars affected by emissions scandal

ZURICH: Swiss consumer protection organisation SKS has filed a claim on behalf of some 6,000 car owners seeking damages from Volkswagen AG and Swiss car dealer AMAG related to the "Dieselgate" emissions scandal. Volkswagen said 98 per cent of the 173,000 affected vehicles in Switzerland had already been refitted at no cost to owners. (AFP/Fred DUFOUR) The claim has been lodged with the Zurich commercial court. SKS said it was assuming damages amounted on average to 15 per cent of the initial retail price of the vehicles concerned and that, together with insurance companies supporting the legal action, it wanted to give Swiss-based car owners the possibility to enforce their rights without disproportionate financial risk. "The cars sold as environmentally friendly were overpriced from the beginning. Due to the manipulation of the exhaust system, they then lost even more of their value on the secondary market," SKS (Stiftung fuer Konsumentenschutz) said in a statement on … [Read more...] about 6,000 Swiss VW owners seek damages in emissions scandal

SYDNEY: Australia's consumer watchdog on Wednesday (Mar 8) launched court action against Volkswagen and its subsidiary Audi over an emissions cheating scandal, claiming they engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged Audi had installed so-called defeat software to produce lower levels of harmful nitrogen oxides during testing than under normal driving conditions. It said that Audi Australia marketed up to 12,000 cars as complying with stringent European standards when this was not the case. Parent company Volkswagen designed and supplied the engines and software to Audi AG for installation, the commission added in a statement initiating Federal Court action. "Consumers expect that there is some relationship between the performance of the car as set out in the sales brochure and their day to day on-road use," said ACCC chairman Rod Sims. "We allege that the installation of software which allows the vehicle to meet … [Read more...] about Australia sues Audi, Volkswagen over emissions cheating

Volkswagen India on Tuesday announced that the company will recall around 323,700 cars in the country in the wake of an emissions cheating scandal.
NEW DELHI: Volkswagen India on Tuesday (Dec 1) announced that the company will recall around 323,700 cars in the country in the wake of an emissions cheating scandal.
Volkswagen has been engulfed in scandal since September, when it admitted more than 11 million vehicles worldwide equipped with smaller 2.0-litre diesel engines had "defeat" software designed to cheat on emissions tests.
"Volkswagen Group India announces a voluntary recall for updating all cars with EA 189 engines in the Indian market," a statement released by the company said.
"Approximately 323,700 cars of Volkswagen, SKODA and Audi in India are equipped with EA 189 diesel engines," it said, adding that the company would update the software of the recalled cars.
The company said that it had presented its "observations, findings and outlines of possible solutions" on … [Read more...] about Volkswagen India to recall 323,700 cars over emissions scandal

German transport authorities will order auto giant Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million diesel vehicles in Germany equipped with pollution-cheating software, a spokesman for the KBA or Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt said.
FRANKFURT: German transport authorities will order auto giant Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million diesel vehicles in Germany equipped with pollution-cheating software, a spokesman told AFP on Thursday (Oct 15).
"We are going to issue the order," the spokesman for the KBA or Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt said, adding that "2.4 million vehicles are concerned" and that the authority would monitor the recall.
Last week, VW put forward a plan to begin recalling the vehicles from January 2016.
Neither the KBA nor the German transport ministry which oversees it had commented so far on VW's roadmap to solve the scandal, which has plunged the world's biggest carmaker in terms of sales into its deepest-ever crisis.
Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt is scheduled to give a statement to the … [Read more...] about German authorities to order recall of 2.4 million VW vehicles in emission scandal

The scandal has disrupted Volkswagen's global business and sullied its reputation. Volkswagen AG will pay an additional $86 million in penalties to California over its emissions scandal, on top of a settlement of $14.7 billion the automaker reached with U.S. officials last week, state Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement on Thursday. The office of Harris, a Democrat, said the $86 million in civil penalties resolved certain claims California officials made against Volkswagen under the state's unfair competition law as well as under federal law. "We must conserve and protect our environment for future generations and deliver swift and certain consequences to those who break the law and pollute our air," said Harris, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. The latest settlement between officials for Volkswagen and California, the nation's most populous state, provides for $76 million to be paid to Harris' office to defray costs relating to investigation and … [Read more...] about Volkswagen to pay $86 mln in penalties to California over emissions scandal

Repeated quality scandals, stiff foreign competition and lagging technology have knocked Japan's auto giants off pole position but analysts say the once world-beating sector could yet steer itself to a comeback. Toyota, Nissan and small-car maker Suzuki were all showing off their next-generation wares at the Tokyo Motor Show this week, but the exhibition comes at a bad time for the industry. Nissan is embroiled in a quality inspection crisis that has seen it recall more than 1.2 million vehicles and suspend production of cars sold in its home market, while Mitsubishi Motors last year was caught fudging fuel-economy tests to make its cars seem more efficient than they were. The scandal at Nissan, meanwhile, has been compounded by a crisis at Kobe Steel, which falsified strength and quality data for products sold to Japan's automotive industry. This summer, Tokyo-based Takata tumbled into bankruptcy as its defective airbags were blamed for the deaths of at least 17 people globally and … [Read more...] about Scandal-hit Japan automakers eye return to ‘golden age’

German luxury carmaker BMW on Sunday denied any collusion with industry rivals on emissions from its diesel engines, saying none of its models had been "manipulated" or violated industry regulations.
As revelations about polluting exhaust continue to buffet Germany's all-important auto sector, the Munich-based giant sought to distance itself from what it called the "scandaliation of diesel motors".
"The fact is that automobiles from the BMW group are not manipulated and comply with the relevant legal requirements," the company said in a statement.
"This of course also applies to diesel automobiles. This is confirmed by the relevant results from tests by national and international authorities."
Der Spiegel magazine had reported Friday that German carmakers Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler had secretly worked together from the 1990s onwards on issues including polluting emissions from diesel vehicles.
Volkswagen, which is facing tens of billions of dollars in … [Read more...] about BMW denies collusion on diesel emissions

Shares in VW have dropped after it reported "irregularities" in carbon dioxide emissions levels, which could affect around 800,000 cars in Europe.
The firm said the problem, which it came across while investigating diesel emissions, could cost about €2bn (£1.4bn).
Brands including VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat could be affected, a VW spokesman told BBC News.
The issue mainly affects diesels, but could also include petrol models.
The problem lies in the way certain car types with "smaller engines" were certified to meet carbon dioxide emissions standards, the spokesman added.
CO2 is a greenhouse gas, as opposed to the NOx involved in earlier allegations, which is a pollutant that causes lung disease.
The so-called irregularities that have now been found relate to the way in which CO2 emissions and fuel consumption were measured during the technical approval process for some models.
On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, shares in VW were down 5.6% in early trading. The company's … [Read more...] about Volkswagen says 800,000 cars may have false CO2 levels

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said on Sunday it plans to join the class-action lawsuits filed against Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) over the German automaker's emissions scandal.
"Norges Bank Investment Management intends to join a legal action against Volkswagen arising out of that the company provided incorrect emissions data," Marthe Skaar, the fund's spokeswoman, said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
"We have been advised by our lawyers that the company's conduct gives rise to legal claims under German law. As an investor, it is our responsibility to safeguard the fund's holding in Volkswagen," Skaar added.
The legal action would take place in Germany, a separate fund spokesman told Reuters, declining to give details as to when it would happen.
The Financial Times on Sunday first reported the sovereign fund's plan to sue Volkswagen.
The $850 billion oil fund is expected in the coming weeks to join the class-action lawsuits filed against Volkswagen in German … [Read more...] about Norway’s wealth fund to sue Volkswagen over emissions scandal